By Yohane Chideya, Liz Ng’ang’a, Ayuka Fombong, Dennis Ong’or, Warren Arinaitwe[WA1]
In February 2024, the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT (The Alliance), through the Pan-Africa Bean Research Alliance (PABRA), joined hands with the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) to embark on a bold journey. Together, they launched the Building Equitable Climate-Resilient African Bean & INsect Sectors (BRAINS) Initiative supported by the Global Affairs Canada – a first-of-its-kind partnership, aimed at transforming African agriculture by integrating beans, fruit trees such as avocados and mangoes, and beneficial insects such as bees and Black Soldier Flies (BSF).
By working with national agricultural research systems (NARS) in 15 sub-Saharan African countries, the two institutions adopted the climate-smart push-pull technology for pest control and modern, sustainable beekeeping methods, creating synergies across beans, fruit trees, and insect-based farming. Early outcomes include strengthened business skills, equitable access to resources, and enhanced opportunities for women and youth across smallholder and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) value chains, while expanding access to climate-smart technologies and sustainable finance to scale adoption.
Reflections on progress made
Between 23 and 26 March 2026, BRAINS Project partners convened in Arusha, Tanzania, to review and interrogate progress. The gathering created space for honest reflection on what it truly takes to translate collaboration into transformation. The conversations tackled difficult but necessary questions: How effectively are research and development efforts being integrated across institutions? Where are the bottlenecks in delivering a truly demand-led innovation approach, particularly in engaging off-takers across beans, beekeeping, fruit value chains, and insect farming such as black soldier fly? And how can existing value chains built by icipe, The Alliance, and other partners be better aligned and leveraged for scale?
Project Partners line up for a photo on the sidelines of the reflection meeting in Arusha, Tanzania
The discussions also turned inward toward results. What tangible changes are already emerging from BRAINS interventions, and more importantly, what long-term transformation is beginning to take shape? The answers were diverse, candid, and ultimately reassuring. The relationship is working, with lessons learned – just as any meaningful partnership – grounded with shared commitment, continuous learning, and a willingness to adapt.
Today, the evidence of this partnership is evident in its “offspring”; organized bean farmers in cooperatives, black soldier fly entrepreneurs, beekeepers and honey producers, fruit growers, and a growing ecosystem of SMEs ready to drive their respective value chains forward. These beneficiaries are both the outcome and the motivation, reinforcing the need to strengthen this collaboration further through targeted training, deeper integration, and sustained focus on the ambition at its core.
Leveraging on the private sector and existing technologies
Furthermore, partners saw it worthwhile to leverage on the existing partnerships along the value chains – particularly private sector-led multistakeholder platforms that bring together farmers, researchers, seed companies, and traders – remains central to accelerating impact. These platforms play a critical coordinating role, helping to speed up the adoption of improved bean varieties while strengthening market access. By reducing transaction costs and bridging the gap between seed supply and market demand, they create more efficient, responsive systems that ultimately boost productivity, trade, and farmer incomes through improved, climate-resilient, and marketable bean varieties.
As the BRAINS Initiative enters its third year, partners are sharpening their focus on one critical shift: placing the private sector at the center of the implementation model. The ambition is to expand reach, accelerate adoption, and unlock meaningful job creation across interconnected value chains. From input suppliers and artisans crafting beehives to logistics providers, processors, aggregators, and market off-takers, BRAINS is positioning itself to stimulate enterprise growth at every node of the system.
At the same time, the BRAINS is advancing integrated “social technical and innovation bundles” that combine technologies with skills, social innovations, services, and market linkages. These packages are designed not only to improve productivity, but to ensure that smallholders, MSMEs, and cooperatives can participate competitively and sustainably in evolving agri-food markets. Central to this approach is stronger collaboration with private sector partners to test, validate, and scale technologies and practices under real market conditions—bridging the gap between innovation and uptake.
Across the discussions, what stood out was that private sector engagement must be treated as a core delivery pathway rather than an add-on. Reaching scale will depend on building existing technologies while deliberately expanding partnerships that connect innovation to markets. This also brings into focus the need to address persistent social barriers, particularly gender norms that limit women’s participation in areas such as beekeeping. By working more closely with private actors while tackling these constraints, the initiative can open more inclusive opportunities and strengthen the overall effectiveness of its interventions.
Integrated nutritious products
Another key area of focus is the development of integrated products from beans, fruits, and insect-based value chains into practical recipes for both household consumption and commercial markets. This approach not only promotes diversified, nutritious diets but also opens new business opportunities across the value chain. Five countries – Cameroon, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia—have already been earmarked to pilot and scale these innovations, serving as entry points for demonstrating how integrated food systems can drive both nutrition and enterprise development.
Integrated products combining beans, insects, and fruits are amongst key focuses of the BRAINS Initiative
Financing has also emerged as a critical enabler. SMEs play a central role in bringing food products to market, many remain constrained by limited financial and technical capacity to grow and compete. This is where the Nutritious Foods Financing Facility (N3F) comes in. Dedicated to advancing nutrition across sub-Saharan Africa, N3F is one of the strategic partnerships being strengthened this year—investing in SMEs that are building resilient food systems both upstream and downstream. Already active in countries such as Uganda, Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania, and Zambia, the fund is expected to play a pivotal role in supporting product development and scaling integrated innovations.
Add a paragraph on mechanization (ref to presentation by imara tech and visit). Low cost tools which increase labour productivity, reduce drudgery and improve quality of value add products
Take-home message
Bean Program Leader at the Alliance, Jean Claude Rubyogo, who is also PABRA Director[WA2] , underscored the importance of deepening private sector engagement, pointing to opportunities in high-value products such as organic honey and other differentiated offerings. “First, private sector engagement, and second, enabling those actors to trade beyond borders, including with Canadian partners. It’s about the products we can produce, the knowledge and innovation we share, capacity building, and smart partnerships,” he explained.
Co-Project Leader Ayuka Fombong[WA3] , an Entomologist at icipe reinforced the need to build on what is already working, highlighting the strength of complementarity within the partnership. “We might be two different institutions, with different mandates and missions, but at the end of the day, it is about impacting households, communities, and African societies. That’s our common ground. PABRA has over 25 years of experience in beans, and icipe over 50 years in insects—the integration is not only working but also showing transformation.”
From a national perspective, Pamela Paparu, a Plant Pathologist with National Agricultural Research (NARO)in Uganda, reflected on the lessons emerging from BRAINS. She emphasized that lasting impact requires strong collaboration with local partners and sustained engagement, not science alone. “Through this project, I see that we can achieve impact even within five years. Many projects take a decade to show results, but this model is already demonstrating that meaningful change can happen much faster.”
Two years in, BRAINS is proving that integration is a practical pathway to transformation. What began as a bold partnership is steadily evolving into a dynamic ecosystem, where science, enterprise, and community are working together to reshape food systems across Africa. The lessons are clear: collaboration must be intentional, innovation must be demand-driven, and partnerships must extend beyond research into markets and livelihoods.
As the initiative moves forward, its strength will lie in its ability to stay adaptive – deepening integration, expanding private sector engagement, and ensuring that women, youth, and smallholder actors are not just participants, but drivers of change. The foundation has been laid; the systems are taking root.
Now, the task ahead is to scale what works, refine what does not, and continue nurturing the “marriage” that is already bearing diverse fruits, because ultimately, the success of BRAINS will not be measured by partnerships alone, but by the millions of livelihoods improved, the jobs created, and the resilient food systems built for generations to come.